Hello, my name is Rick Dove. This website is my individual website used to expose the pollution practices of the swine industry in eastern North Carolina. For additional information regarding this issue you can also visit the Waterkeeper website atwww.waterkeeper.org.You can reach me at RDOVE2017@gmail.com. The purpose of this website is to post information and pictures that demonstrate the incredible amount of pollution generated by the practices of the hog and poultry industry and the state's failed enforcement effort. The consequences of this pollution are also provided.

There are now approximately 2,500 industrial swine facilities raising 10,000,000 hogs and nearly one billion chickens and turkeys in North Carolina. Most of this takes place in NC's coastal plain. This is a radical change from conditions that existed prior to the mid-1980s. Then, there were approximately 24,000 family farmers raising a little over 2,000,000 hogs and a limited amount of poultry. Concerning hogs, based upon a study of Dr. Mark Sobsey of the University of North Carolina that compared hog to human waste, these hogs are producing more fecal matter in Eastern North Carolina each day than is produced by each day by 50,000,000 US citizens.This incredible amount of fecal matter is constantly being flushed from the confinement buildings where these animals are kept under what are often grossly inhumane conditions. Once flushed, the feces and urine from these animals is stored in the open environment in huge earthen sewage pits called lagoons. These lagoons constantly discharge to the surrounding environment. As the lagoons fill up, the waste is sprayed onto heavily ditched fields under the pretext of growing crops. It is a waste disposal system that results in runoff to the public trust waters. It is a major polluter of the air (ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane gases), ground water and wetlands, streams, creeks and rivers.

This website and all its pictures copyright protected 2017. If you wish to see other photographs or obtain copies of any of these pictures, please contact me at RDOVE@ec.rr.com